A full explanation of A/B testing and its conduct on a WordPress site

Whatever the type of your website, you will often feel confused between using different colors, shapes, and phrases in different parts of the site. If you run an online store, for example, you want the color of the purchase button on your site to be the color that gets you the largest number of clicks on it. If there is a membership system on your site, you will prefer to use the most appropriate phrase for the registration button to increase the likelihood of the user responding to your urging him to register on your site. To make it easier for you to be confused between using one or more elements, you can use A/B testing. In this article, we will explain this test to you, and teach you how to perform it on your WordPress site using an easy-to-use tool provided by Google.

Article Contents What is A/B testing? Benefits of conducting A/B testing Types of A/B testing 1. Classic A/B testing 2.

Multivariate testing (MVT testing) 3. Redirect testing 4. Multi-page testing Conducting A/B testing in WordPress 1.

Create and set up a Google Optimize account 2. Use the Google Optimize tool to create an A/B test What is an A/B test? A/B testing, or as it is sometimes called split testing, is a method that enables you to make data-backed decisions about anything that appears on the front end of your website, from the colors of buttons and titles, to calls to action, to the design of the site as a whole, by showing visitors two (or more) different versions of the web page and seeing how they will interact with each one, and then determining which version is better.

That is, instead of having to guess which of the two phrases will bring you the most profits, or which of the two templates visitors will like the most, or which color you will use for the titles on the site, you can conduct an A/B test, and make the right decision based on the real data that you will get from the results of the test after it is finished. Benefits of conducting an A/B test There are many benefits that an A/B test can provide to website owners based on how it is set up, and among the benefits of the task are: Raising the conversion rate: You can get the most possible benefit from your site visitors by conducting A/B tests to find out which variables are best at urging the user to take the action you want them to take, and then adopting them to increase the number of conversions, whether they are purchases or otherwise. Improving the user experience: You can address the points on your site that make the user experience poor and make it difficult for him to reach what he wants and achieve his goal, whatever it may be, by conducting split testing to determine the best method that facilitates the visitor’s access to what he wants.

Reducing the bounce rate: There are many reasons that lead to a high rate of visitors bouncing from the site, such as bad design, difficult navigation, and using a lot of difficult terms. Conducting A/B tests can help solve these problems and thus reduce the bounce rate.

Modify the website design: You can based on the test

Segmentation Determines whether the modifications you make to the site design are useful, regardless of their size, whether they include the color of a button on one of the site’s pages, or an entire page, or even all of the site’s pages. It is worth noting that you must continue to conduct A/B testing on your site, because the benefits and goals that it helps to achieve must continue to improve in order for the site to remain successful and at the forefront of sites in its category. Types of A/B Testing There are many types of split testing that you can use to determine which option is best for any aspect of your website, and some offer options that others do not.

Common types of this test include the following: 1. Classic A/B testing: In this type of test, two pages that differ from each other in one or more things are displayed to visitors within the same URL. For example, one page displays a red button to some visitors, while the other displays a green button to other visitors. You can also display more than two pages to visitors. In the previous example, you can display the button for a section of visitors in blue as well.

2. Multivariate testing (MVT testing): This type differs from the standard type in that you can change the properties of a group of elements on a web page, and create pages that differ from each other so that you have a group of pages that include changes in all possible ways. To illustrate the idea of ​​multivariate testing, we give the following example. If you want to measure the impact of changing two things on a page on a rate, such as the color of the title text and the phrase "subscribe", you would have two variables, and for each variable you would have two or more versions.

The variables will be the color of the title text and the words of the phrase that the subscribe button carries. As for the copy variables, the first will have two or more colors, and the second will have two or more phrases. Let's say you want to test two versions of each variable for simplicity. For the first variable, the text color will be either (red) or (purple), and for the other variable, the button will carry the phrase (Start the demo account) or (Subscribe now). Thus, here you will have 4 pages that differ from each other and are characterized by the following characteristics: The first page: The color of the title text is red, and the phrase for the subscription button is (Start the demo account).

The second page: The color of the title text is red, and the phrase for the subscription button is (Subscribe now). The third page: The color of the title text is purple, and the phrase for the subscription button is (start the trial account). The fourth page: The color of the title text is purple, and the phrase for the subscription button is (Subscribe now).

Multivariate A/B tests enable you to determine which versions of variables are best, and by reading the results you can see how each variable affects the number of conversions or whatever goal you are testing to reach. 3. Redirect test: In this test, visitors are divided and redirected to two different URLs instead of changing some elements on the page and showing them to visitors in two or more different ways. You can create two pages that are significantly different from each other and aim to achieve the same goal, each with its own URL, and then direct some visitors to one of these two pages, and the rest to the other page.

4. Multi-page testing: Multi-page testing is an A/B test that is run across multiple pages linked together, such as the pages that the visitor visits when he makes a purchase or registers on the site, where multiple elements are changed along the path that the visitor takes when he performs the process, starting from the first page concerned with the process, and ending with the last page that confirms his success in doing so. In the beginning, it is preferable to conduct standard A/B tests, and after you have the necessary experience, you can move on to conducting more complex tests, such as multivariate tests and multi-page tests. Next, we will explain how to conduct standard A/B testing in the WordPress content management system based on the Google Optimize tool.

Conducting A/B testing in WordPress In fact, there are many tools through which you can perform A/B testing on a WordPress site professionally, but we believe that the best free tool that you can start with is Google Optimize, because although it does not have a plugin that directly integrates it with the WordPress system, it is still easy to use. To use the Google Optimize tool to conduct A/B tests on your WordPress site, you must first connect your site to Google Analytics, and you can do this by applying one of the methods in our comprehensive article (Explanation of installing Google Analytics for your WordPress site), in which we explained different easy-to-apply methods for linking the site to Google Analytics. 1.

Create and set up a Google Optimize account After linking your site to Google Analytics, you will have to go to Google Optimize and create a free account using the same email address that you already use for the Google Analytics account to which you have added your website. To create a free account in order to use the Google Optimize tool, go directly to the tool’s website by clicking here, then log in to Google using your email address for the Google Analytics account added to the site. After logging into your Google account, you should see the Google Optimize home page.

To start preparing the tool for use, click on the (Get started) button. Clicking on the (Get started) button to start setting up the Google Optimize tool. You will be presented with a set of optional questions related to obtaining tips, notifications, etc. You must answer these questions by choosing the option that corresponds to what you want, then click on the (Next) button at the bottom of the page.

Answer the optional questions and move to the next step. After that, you must select the account settings, agree to the terms of use of the service, and select your country from the next page that appears, then click the (Done) button. Test the account settings and agree to the terms of use. Thus, you have finished setting up your Google Optimize account, and you must link it to Google Analytics in preparation for starting to use the tool to create A/B tests on your WordPress site. To do this, click on the word (Settings) at the top of the page to show the tool options, then click on the (Link to Analytics) button located within the Measurement section.

You will now see a section titled (Link a Property) asking you to choose the site you want from your sites added to your Google Analytics account. Choose the site you want from the (Select Property) drop-down list, then click the (Link) button at the top. Clicking on the (Link to Analytics) button to link with Google Analytics. Within a few seconds, the site will be added to the account, and its data will be listed in the Measurement section where the (Link to Analytics) button was located. The site has been added to the Measurement section, but you still need to insert custom code provided by the tool to the pages of your website where you want to test.

You will find the code that you must add to your website pages in a text box under the (Setup instructions) section, which is located under the (Measurement) section. Copy the code and add it within the head tag within the HTML code of your WordPress website through the template editor, which provides you with the ability to do this manually, or by using the Insert Headers and Footers add-on, which provides you with the ability to do this easily by placing the code you want to add in the designated field within the tool options, then clicking on the (Save) button. With this, you have completed the process of creating and setting up a Google Optimize account, and you can use it to create A/B tests and benefit from the results you get from them.

2. Use the Google Optimize tool to create an A/B test After creating and setting up a Google Optimize account, you will be able to start creating your first A/B test by clicking on the (Let’s go) button located under the (Experiences) tab on your account page. Starting to create your first AB test When you click on the (Let’s go) button, a window will appear asking you to enter and specify some information about the test.

Enter an appropriate name for the test in the (Name) field, then place the link to the page where you want to apply the test in the (URL of the page) field below it, then choose the type of test you want to create, then click the (Create) button at the top. Create an AB test in Google Optimize After creating the test, you will go to its page, and you must create the variables whose impact you want to measure from that page, and then set the goals and start the test so that after its completion you obtain the results that enable you to make the appropriate decision. On the test page, click on the (Add Variant) button, then enter the name of the variable (for example: the button color is red), then click on the (Done) button.

The variable you created will appear in the Variables section on the test page. Each variable in this section represents a version of the page on which we are conducting the test. The new variables do not differ from the original version of the page in anything when you create the variable. Rather, you must specify the properties that you want to change to create a new version of the page that is different from the original version. The variable that we added appeared in the Variables section on the test page. You must add variables in the number of versions of the page different from the original version that you want to create and display to visitors. Then, you must modify each variable separately from the other through a dedicated editor, so it can be used by clicking on the (Edit) button located in the variable line within the Variables section on the test page. Page for modifying the properties of the elements on the page for one of the variables in the AB test. Note: When you click on the (Edit) button, which is supposed to take you to a page that enables you to make the modifications you want to the original version of the page, the site will ask you to use the Google Chrome browser if you are using another browser, and if the Optimize Chrome extension is not installed on the browser, you will be asked to install it.

Do what the site asks, then click the button again to go to the editing page. You can easily make any modification you want within the editing page, as the page includes many tools that facilitate the task of modification, and there are also many options that facilitate moving between different versions (variables), undoing changes, and so on. After you finish making the modifications you want, you must click the (Save) button.

Save the modifications made to the page version. It is worth noting that in addition to making modifications to the appearance of the elements on the page, you may have to make modifications that help you track what visitors do on the page in order to know the impact of the change you made on the way the visitor behaves. After making the modifications you want to all versions of the page, you must select the objectives on which you seek to study the impact of the changes you have made from the Objectives section on the test page itself. There are two ways to define goals. The first method depends on choosing the goal from the list, which is the easiest method, but it only provides the ability to specify a goal from the default goals such as bounce rate, number of page views, and session duration, or from the goals that you previously created in your account in Google Analytics.

The second method enables you to define and create a custom goal yourself, such as clicking on a button on the page or something else, but explaining it requires more than just a paragraph because there are many types of events that the user can do on the page. It also requires creating a tracking of the event in Google Analytics, so we will not explain this method here. To specify a goal in the first way, you must click on the (Add experiment objective) button, then click from the drop-down list that appears on the (Choose from list) option, as the default and pre-set goals will appear to you, and you can choose from them. Show a list of goals from which you can choose a goal. Then, after selecting the goals that you want to study the impact of your changes on the page, you will be able to start the test by clicking on the (Start) button at the top, then re-clicking on the (Start) button again in the dialog box that appears.

Starting the created AB test After running the test, you will be able to follow the results on the test’s (Reporting) page, which provides all the information you will need to determine which version of the page is best for the goal you have specified (the version that is best at getting visitors to perform the task required to achieve the goal), after a sufficient period of time has passed and the tool has collected the information required to determine the best version with great accuracy. The report page that provides information about the test and in which the tool determines the best version. Once you have collected a sufficient amount of data and after knowing the best version of the page, you can make it appear to all visitors instead of just a specific percentage of them, thus ensuring that you get greater benefit from the visitors who visit the page. Thus, we have finished explaining A/B testing and its benefits, introducing you to its different types, and giving you a detailed overview of how to create it in WordPress. In conclusion, we point out that the Google Optimize tool that we explained here provides many other powerful options related to split testing that we did not mention in this article, and you can try it and use it to see how powerful it is and the benefits it can provide to the website.